University 18 Yrs + | Parties and Voting

The Electoral Geography of British Political Parties

Britain has moved from a two party system in 1951, when Churchill offered to absorb the Liberals into the Conservative Party as they were so weak, to a complicated multi-party system.

Parties are also now required to register before they can stand in elections and there are controls on the amount that can be spent in the national general election campaign and regulations about where funds come from (though election spending was always limited in Britain, especially compared with the US, and controlled at the constituency level – the Conservatives won the marginal seat of Ayr in 1987 spending £300 on the campaign, whereas Rockefeller running for Senator in West Virginia bought every boy in the state a baseball)

There have been significant changes in the electoral geography of party support.

These have occurred for three reasons:-

1. Changes in social patterns because of social mobility and because of movements of population</p

2. Changes in the extent to which parties are able to appeal to different groups of the population

3. New parties competing against the established parties in a constituency

We use cookies on this site. They're used to remember any preferences that you set to give you a better experience when you return. You can opt-out if you wish by clicking reject below or you can manage your settings here through this Cookie settings link. You can also view our Privacy & Cookies Policy. ACCEPTREJECT

Our Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for our website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary cookies are ones that may not be particularly necessary for our website to function. They are cookies explicitly used to collect user personal data via analytics, ads and other embedded contents. It is mandatory for us to get your (i.e the user's) consent prior to running these cookies on our website.